Twist of Events
by MusicLover500
Summary: He gave her the stars, the universe, new worlds... a chance to escape, and in turn she healed the lingering wounds of war. It was amazing what a different time, a different place, a different person, can do for one's destiny.
1. A Chance Meeting (Part I)

_Thanks to Dark Alana for helping me with the summary- making sure I didn't give too much away and whatnot._

_Something very important you should know before starting this story- there is no Rose in this. As much as I love her (at least during season 1) I wanted to give this idea a spin where Elena becomes the Doctor's companion. Other things you should know is for Doctor Who this won't exactly be following episode for episode- though I will include some- and for Vampire Diaries during the summer between seasons 2 and 3 though Elena is already 18._

_This and the next chapter will loosely follow the events of the episode 'Rose'- the Autons, the Doctor arriving, a new companion for him, etc.- the important stuff, really._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing- Doctor Who belongs to the BBC, Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffat, and other people. Vampire Diaries belongs to Julie Plec, the CW, and L.J. Smith._

Chapter 1: A Chance Meeting, part I

A shrill ringing sliced through the blissful state of sleep Elena Gilbert was in. Wincing at the pitch and annoyed at having her sleep interrupted, the brunette reached over to her nightstand and slammed the snooze button.

She was about to roll back over and cover her head to get a few more precious minutes of no worrying when the bright red digits on the alarm clock reminded her- it was time she got up and got ready for work.

She stifled a groan. Even though she'd been working at the small department store near downtown Mystic Falls ever since school let out for summer in hopes of earning some money for college, she still hated having to get up this early every week day.

_But you signed yourself up for this- a chance to be normal after everything, remember? _She told herself as she crawled out of bed and into the bathroom she shared with Jeremy. Light snoring from the door on the other side told her that her brother was still sleeping soundly. _Besides, college is expensive- extra money always helps. _

Taking a quick shower and changing into some nice yet casual clothes, she grabbed a small crossover purse that held all the things she would need- keys, driver's license, wallet, money, among other things- and slung it over her body before heading downstairs.

Downstairs was quiet, except for the deep, even breaths of the occupant on the couch. Elena couldn't see him, but she knew Alaric must be fast asleep, laying in an only slightly uncomfortable position as it was a couch. No matter how many times her or Jeremy assured him he could take Jenna's room since he was their legal guardian, he refused and continued sleeping in the living room.

Smiling sadly at the man who had become her father figure- wishing she could do something to ease the pain he was feeling over Jenna's death- she quietly made her way into the kitchen where she grabbed an apple and bottle of orange juice.

Sticking both in her bag to finish on her way to work, she scribbled a quick note reminding Alaric and Jeremy she was at work. After Klaus' sacrifice, everyone became more protective and now it seemed she could hardly go anywhere without someone or letting someone know exactly where she was going to be.

She was touched everyone cared about her, but sometimes it got a little annoying. Most had loosened up by now since there had been no sign of Klaus but some were still taking it too far. A certain dark haired vampire came to mind.

Damon had taken to practically shadowing her. She didn't know if it was more because of his feelings for her or trying to keep her safe out of guilt for Stefan's sake while his brother was off paying his debt to Klaus for saving his life, but it was starting to become tiring.

Her heart clenched as she thought about Stefan- the vampire she had fallen in love with. Even after deciding to give up on him, it still hurt thinking about him.

She was torn out of her thoughts by spotting the time. 7:45- she only had fifteen minutes before she was late.

Digging her apple out, she began devouring it as fast as she could while practically jogging towards the downtown area, eager to keep her reputation as a punctual, on time employee.

-DW-VD-

The first half of the job went by fast, with activity beginning to pick up just as she clocked out for her lunch break. Elena didn't envy her coworkers who got stuck having to deal with the mass of people coming in during one the busier hours.

Walking a few blocks she came to the Mystic Grill, fairly busy as it was close to lunch hour, and hoped Caroline and Bonnie were already there. She was supposed to have lunch with them today; the first in awhile as their different schedules tended to conflict.

Entering the old favorite hangout she spotted the familiar blonde and curly black heads of her friends sitting at a table by themselves. Smiling, she wove her way past people and slid into a seat next to them.

"Elena! You made it." Caroline exclaimed, being the first to realize the brunette had joined them.

"Barely. I only just clocked out when the lunch hour crowd started coming in." She replied.

"That bad, huh?" Bonnie said. "I'm still surprised a store that small manages to attract so many people- this is a small town after all."

"It's the biggest clothing store in town unless you want to drive a few miles to the nearest mall- and they have some very nice clothes." Caroline chimed in. "And it's summer, when everyone has free time."

The store _was_ fairly big- two stories, with different clothes from a variety of different brands. Elena could remember shopping there with her mom years ago- before her parents accident, before the supernatural- and that was part of the reason why she chose to work there instead of say, at the Mystic Grill. It reminded her of better times.

Pushing those thoughts away and focusing on the here and now, she listened eagerly to the stories her two friends had to tell about their summer so far.

As her lunch break neared an end, she said goodbye to her friends with promises to do this or something similar sometime soon and retraced her steps back to the department store.

Clocking in with only a few minutes to spare, she quickly began folding shirts and restocking items, keeping an eye on the clock every now and then to see how much longer she had.

-DW-VD-

Sighing with relief as the last customer left, Elena smiled slightly as she stretched, feeling better already. It wasn't that her job was horrible per say- compared to cleaning toilets- but it was always nice to go home and relax at the end of the day.

Double checking to make sure she had everything, she retrieved her crossover purse from the employees locker room and was making her way towards the front entrance when a voice shouting her name made her stop.

"Elena!" The teenager turned around to see one of the other employees, Sharon, running towards her.

"Hey. Is there something you need?" She asked, smiling at the girl despite how much she wanted to just go home. Sharon was nice, and somewhat of a friend.

"I was wondering… could you take this to Wilson? I'd take it myself, but my dad's supposed to come home tonight, and I promised both my mom and myself that I'd be there at the airport." She asked, sincerely sounding sorry.

Elena knew the girl's dad was a marine and had been overseas the past few years, and knew how much she had waited to see him again.

"Yeah, sure. Go on- I'm sure you're dad will be happy to see you." She replied. The other girl gave her a quick hug and a huge smile before waving goodbye and running out of the store.

The brief elevator ride to the basement went by fast, and Elena stepped out into the slightly dark room, still finding it creepy- it was too much of a perfect place for a vampire to hide. _Or Klaus. _Her mind whispered, only adding to the creepy feeling.

"Wilson?" She called, hoping to find him and get out of her and home as soon as possible. "Wilson, are you there?" The chief electrician didn't answer.

A door was open, and the brunette walked into the room, finding it to be a storage room full of mannequins. "Wilson?" She tried again.

Behind her, the door suddenly slammed shut. Forgetting that she needed to deliver something, she raced towards and tried to open it to no anvil. The door wouldn't budge. It was stuck.

A noise startled her, and she whipped around walked further into the room, trying to find the source. Suddenly, one of the mannequins she passed moved.

Stopping, she stared as it moved towards her, it's movements stiff and robotic.

"Derek?" She called nervously hoping this was somehow a prank by the store and town's most well known prankster. Other mannequins soon joined the first, all advancing on her.

Her back hit a wall. She hardly noticed she had been moving backwards, but now she was trapped. There was no way she could get around all of them. Closing her eyes, she prepared to die- again- when suddenly a hand grabbed hers.

Time seemed to slow down as she met a pair of blue eyes.

"Run." The owner said, with a very British accent to his voice. He pulled her out of the way mere seconds before the first mannequin struck where her head had been.

She didn't need to be told twice, and followed him as they raced away from the suddenly living plastic men. She hardly noticed that they were still holding hands, nor that it felt good.

The two ducked into a service elevator at the end of the hallway and pressed their backs against it, waiting for the doors to close. It seemed like they would be getting away- until one of them managed to get their arms into the doorway before it closed.

The man tugged at it until it pulled off with a violent _snap_. Elena gaped at it.

"We pulled his arm off." Was all she could say.

"Yep. Plastic." He said fairly cheerfully, tossing the now severed arm to her.

"I guess it's not students or a prank then." Elena said, her mind suddenly going a million miles an hour as she tried to find what it could be. Her mind was screaming magic, while the more practical side raked her brain for a more reasonable explanation.

"What? Why not?"

"Well… for one, if it was an actual person, it wouldn't have detached as cleanly nor be solid plastic. Second, pranksters don't usually try to kill people that I know if- and that one really did seem to want to kill me. It could be remote control, but it'd have to have some sort of framework which it doesn't and the only things left I can think of is magic…" She rambled, before shutting up at the last part and glancing at the man. _He probably thinks you are insane. _She got a fairly good look at the rest of the man- he was wearing a leather jacket and had close-cropped brown hair and slightly big ears that actually looked good on him.

The man seemed to have phased out during her ramble- Elena noticed people doing that when she managed to do it, not that rambling has happened in awhile- but he suddenly broke out in a wide grin.

"Impressive! Not your typical dumb ape then- good for you." He said.

The brunette found his comment odd and somewhat insulting but she ignored it in favor of realizing he had basically confirmed her theory of something supernatural going on.

"So there _is _something like magic going on?"

"Somewhat. You'd be surprised how close both that theory and the remote control one are."

Elena paused, and suddenly remembered why she was even in the basement in the first place. "What about Wilson?"

"Who's Wilson?"

"The chief electrician." She elaborated.

"He's dead." He told her grimly.

The doors opened, and Elena didn't move for a few seconds. She hardly knew Wilson, but he didn't deserve to die- no one did.

"He didn't deserve to die. You're going to stop whomever it is controlling the dummies, right? I'd help but I'll probably just get in the way." The brunette asked the stranger. _Not to mention placed under house arrest by my over protective friends and family if they found out. _

The man looked at her and nodded. "I'll stop them." He said, as his hand shot out- faster than she thought possible yet not as fast as a vampire- and caught the closing doors.

They stepped out and the man turned around, pulled a strange silver instrument out and disabled the mechanisms with a high pitched warble sound. The device was very strange, and she interested in learning what it was and how he came by it.

He started walking again and she hurried to catch up.

"Who are you? And what's happening?" She interrogated.

"Those were living plastic creatures. They're controlled by a relay device on the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He pulled out a beeping device that Elena could only assume must be some kind of bomb. "So I'm going to go up on the roof and blow them up, and I might well die in the process but don't you worry about me. No, you go home. Go on living your life, and forget all about what happened tonight. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."

He pushed her out a metal door she didn't even realize was there and shut it before she could say anything. The door suddenly opened again and the man's head poked out with another grin- one that seemed more maniac this time.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's you're name?"

"Elena."

"Nice to meet you, Elena. Run for your life!" He said, waving the beeping device, the grin still on his face before shutting the door again.

She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face despite the situation- the first one in a long while, it had to be something to do with the man's personality- and she quickly turned and raced away.

Slowing down when she was a few blocks away not far from the Mystic Grill she turned around, worry for the stranger hitting her. She seemed to be doing this a lot, worrying about strangers.

A few seconds ticked by and nothing happened- when suddenly an explosion sounded from behind her and she turned in time to see the department store exploding in a fiery inferno one floor at a time. The flames licked hungrily but thankfully seemed contained in the building- for now.

Resuming her walk, she dropped the arm in a trashcan on her way back to her house in case the thing reanimated. She had no idea what the hell was going on, only that it wasn't natural and only one person seemed to know what it was. A person who might very well be dead now.

Determined to stop thinking about the stranger being dead- and him in general- she picked up the pace knowing the sooner she assured people she was safe, the sooner she could get down to piecing together what was happening.

The brunette hardly noticed the out of place blue police box neatly hidden in the shadow of a building.

-DW-VD-

_So this is a bit of a test run- love it, hate it? If you hate it, I'll go back and rewrite it- I'm not giving up on this idea that easily. I'm trying to combine both of these as realistically as possible but as I'm new to the Doctor Who fandom it may be rough for a bit. I'd love you forever if you'd offer to beta this if I continue it- I'm American, and despite my best efforts will probably mess up the British slang somewhat. Also, I've never written for Doctor Who before so I'm bound to screw up accidentally. But I will do my best to double check information online when I get the chance._

_My other stories will be continued… eventually… when the inspiration hits. Question about this: should I have the Nestene Conscious still be in London or have it be somewhere in the United States?_


	2. A Chance Meeting (Part II)

_Note- I'm waiting to hear back from someone who offered to beta my stories 'Blood of A Doppelganger' and 'Blood, Love, and Gold' if they're still interested in being a beta for them so that is why they haven't been updated yet. If I don't hear back in a month or so, then I'll go ahead and update them. I'll hopefully update 'Soulmates' again later this week, since I know fully where I'm taking the remaining chapters._

_Thank you to everyone who added this to his or her favorites and followed it, and special thanks to Amandla123 for reviewing._

_Anyway, here's the conclusion to the first two parter in this which will end with the Doctor gaining a new companion. Hope you enjoy, and I apologize how long it is._

Chapter 2: A Chance Meeting, part II

The moment Elena walked through the front door she was engulfed in a tight hug.

"You're safe." Jeremy said, not releasing his grip on her. "We heard about the explosion, and had no idea if you'd gotten caught in it or not."

"I'm fine, Jer." She replied, returning her brother's hug. "I was just on my way back from work." _A job I don't have anymore. _She added, remembering how the store had gone up in flames.

"Elena?" Alaric asked, coming out of the living room. Elena could faintly hear the television from where she was standing—"_This just in- the department store in downtown Mystic Falls is apparently up in flames. No word yet on what caused this, and we'll get back to you as soon as we know more."—_and tried to hide her surprise; news did seem to travel fast. She smiled at him in reassurance that, yes, she was safe. "I'm glad your safe." He continued, giving her a small smile.

"So am I." The brunette said, breaking out of Jeremy's hug- only to stumble as a wave of fatigue hit her. With the adrenaline of running from the living plastic men she had forgotten how tired she was from being on her feet all day.

Jeremy caught her before she could knock into anything. "You should get some sleep." He told her. "You look like you're about dead on your feet." He joked.

Nodding, she said a quick goodnight to her brother and guardian before heading upstairs. Changing into her sleep clothes, she was out the moment her head hit the pillow.

-DW-VD-

Her alarm clock still went off at the same time the next morning. She was half way through her normal routine when she remembered: she didn't have a job anymore.

Deciding it was too late to go back to sleep now, she finished getting dressed and made a cup of coffee before taking it back up to her room and pulling out her diary.

_Dear Diary,_

She began, then paused. What could she write about? How she didn't have a job anymore and was back to square one of missing Stefan continuously and being shadowed everywhere by Damon?

At that, her mind wandered back to the man from last night. Suddenly, she knew what she was going to add in this entry.

_I'm officially out of a job today. Not because of something I did, but because it got blown up by a man. All I know is that he called himself 'the Doctor' and seems to know why the mannequins came to life last night. He's the only one who knows what's going on- the only one who can stop this if it's something big._

The last part sent chills down Elena's spine- what if it really _was_ more than just a few mannequins in the store coming to life?

Pushing the thought away for now, she closed her diary and made her way downstairs for the second time, finding quite a bit of time had passed. Alaric, who had been asleep on the couch when she had last came down here, was gone- presumably with Damon at the bar. The two did seem to be hanging out a lot more together, and drinking together more often.

Jeremy was up and about in the kitchen, grabbing a few random bits of food to make what she assumed was his idea of a breakfast. Glancing at the clock on the microwave, she saw she had spent an hour or so in her room. It was still early for the other two residents in the house to be up though.

"Morning." He said around a yawn. She glanced at his attire and found he was already dressed.

"Where are you off to at this hour?" She asked, pouring herself a bowl of cereal.

"Bonnie's." Her brother replied. "She offered to let me help her with some spells she wanted to try out." He continued, finishing up the last of his mixed breakfast.

Placing the plate in the dishwasher, he paused at glanced at her. "You sure you're doing ok? I mean, you were near the explosion when it happened."

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said. "Go on and have fun with Bonnie. I'll see you later."

He nodded and smiled at her, before closing the dishwasher and leaving the house.

Elena took her bowl of cereal into the living room and began flipping through channels on the TV to find something mildly interesting to watch. She eventually settled on reruns of _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer_- something her and Caroline used to be obsessed with when they were kids.

Halfway through an episode, a noise outside the front door startled her. Turning towards it, she waited for a few seconds to see if she heard it again. Hearing it, she set her now empty bowl of cereal on the table and cautiously moved towards the door.

Opening the mail slot, she found herself face to face with a familiar pair of blue eyes.

Throwing the door open she saw the man from last night was standing on the other side.

"What're you doing here?" He asked, sounding confused and slightly put out.

"I live here." She replied.

"Well, what do you do that for?"

Elena just looked at him and didn't bother responding. _They way he said it… it's almost like he's not human. _She thought, before pushing it away. Just because he knew what was going on and made odd comments didn't make him some supernatural thing.

"I must have gotten the wrong signal then. You're not plastic are you?" He asked, rapping her head sharply, making her wince. "No, bonehead. Bye, then."

He took off before she could say or do anything, and after realizing this could be the last time she got any answers she took off after him. She ran after him for a few blocks and slowed down when she was a few feet behind him.

"Why are you following me?" He asked, turning around causing her to halt in her tracks.

"I couldn't let you go walking off without getting some answers first." Elena answered.

"Yes you could- this is me walking off and you letting me. See you." He said sarcastically, turning back around.

_If he thinks that will stop me, he's wrong. _She thought. "Can't you at least tell me what's going on?"

"No, I can't."

Seeing this wouldn't get her anywhere, the brunette tried another approach remembering his words from last night. "You said if I told anyone I would get them killed. In exchange for not telling anyone, you can explain the situation."

"Is that supposed to sound tough?"

Annoyed at getting nowhere and at how much she found bantering with this stranger enjoyable, she settled for outright asking some of her questions. "Who are you? What do you do?"

"Told you. I'm the Doctor." He said, resuming his walking. She took off, keeping pace with him.

"Yeah, but what do you do? And doctor of what?" She pressed, wondering what type of doctor he was exactly.

A dark shadow briefly crossed his face. "You don't need to know." He replied. "And just the Doctor."

"So… 'the Doctor'?" She asked slowly for confirmation. This man was becoming odder by the minute.

"Hello!" He said cheerfully and somewhat sarcastically, turning around and waving at her.

"Why did those plastic things try to attack me last night?" Elena continued, changing the subject. She knew it might not be her they were after, but she was the latest Petrova doppelganger- something everyone seemed to want a piece of. And what better way to get her than ambush her with a bunch of robotic, controlled things?

She saw the Doctor roll his eyes. "Typical, thinking the world revolves around you. You were just an accident. It was there, after me. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing."

"So the world what, revolves around you?" She asked, somewhat sarcastic and not expecting an answer. Inside, she was relieved this had nothing to do with her. She had been half worried Klaus had managed to find a witch willing to cast a powerful enough spell to control the plastic to find her, which would have meant Stefan would have given the fact she was still alive away. And that was not a pleasant thought.

"A bit, yeah."

"Full of it much?"

"A bit." He said, making her smile slightly against her own better judgement. _Honestly, what is it about this man? _She wondered.

"All these occurrences… who else knows about it?" The brunette continued, serious again.

"No one." He said shortly, and seemed to pick up his pace. A glance at their surroundings told her they were heading towards a small nearby park.

"You're by yourself?" She couldn't quite believe that- there had to be someone else out there in the world that could help him with… whatever this was.

"Well, who else is there? You lot, all you do is eat chips, watch telly, go to bed, all the while, underneath you, there's a war going on." The Doctor replied.

Elena didn't know much about British slang, but she understood enough to know he was talking about junk food and the television. _Not all of us. _She thought, remembering everything she'd done since the supernatural invaded her life.

"The living plastic- how do you stop it?" She asked, determined to help him now- damn whatever consequences came from her overprotective circle.

"The thing controlling it projects a signal to it. I cut it off, dead."

"Like remote control?" Her mind flashed back to the conversation in the elevator.

"More like thought control. Are you alright?" He asked, like he wasn't expecting her to handle this information well. _If only he knew…_

"Yeah; fine. Who's controlling it?" If she could learn who, then maybe she could come up with a way to stop the person- if it was a person. For all she knew it was some machine or creature.

"Long story." He said shortly.

"What's the purpose of all this- is whomever it is trying to take over the world? The United States?" That was the big one, the one she wanted to know most of all. She could handle threats to Mystic Falls- they seemed to occur weekly- but the world… that would be a different experience.

"Yes." At her look the Doctor elaborated. "It controls all plastic. It wants to take over America. It wants to take over Earth. It wants to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?" With the last part, he turned around and stared at her, his blue eyes looking unrelentingly into her brown ones.

"Yes." She replied, holding back the shivers trying to creep down her spine at his words. Others were trying to as well- though she knew they were because of how intently he was looking at her.

"Which explains why you're still here and won't leave me alone." He muttered.

"Honestly Doctor… who are you? How do you know this?"

He didn't respond for a few seconds, when suddenly he reached out and grabbed her hand, startling her.

"Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you the world's spinning and you just can't quite believe it because everything's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this little world, and if we let go…" He trailed off for a bit. "That's who I am." He continued, his gaze sharpening. "Now forget me, Elena. Just go home."

She longed to ask him more, but realized she had already annoyed him enough stopped her pursuit and let him walk off. Turning around, she began retracing her steps and halted when she felt a wind begin to blow around her.

Turning around, she saw a blue police box standing off to the side, a strange noise immolating from it- and before her eyes, it began to flash, eventually disappearing all together.

-DW-VD-

"Come on, Matt, please?" Elena practically begged her old childhood friend. "I promise you can stay in the car and do whatever you need to if the person really does end up being some sort of serial murderer." She added, hoping he would say yes.

After returning home, she'd researched the Doctor and found there was one man in a nearby small town who was looking for someone who had seen 'a man calling himself the Doctor'. She had contacted him and set up a time when she could visit- now she had to find someone who would be willing to go with her, since she had reluctantly agreed to not leave town without someone.

Everyone else would try to stop her out of being overprotective, but she knew Matt wouldn't. He trusted her to make decisions by herself- something she would always be grateful for.

"I don't know Elena- what if he _is_ luring you to his house to kill you?" The blonde told her. "I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I don't think he is- I promise I won't do anything stupid while there."

Matt sighed, and she cheered for joy inside. "Alright, I'll go with you. But if the man ends up being a serial killer and you die, don't expect me to mention this to Damon. I kind of value my life." He said, the last part an attempt at humor.

She laughed lightly. Damon really would kill him if anything happened to her- something that still disturbed her. "I don't."

The two spent the ride to the man's house making small talk and catching up. It felt almost like old times, when they were together and would dream about getting married and having two kids and didn't know the supernatural existed.

Pulling up to the man's house, Elena exited the car with Matt following her.

"Oh," She remembered what the Doctor had mentioned about whatever it was controlling the plastic controlling all the plastic in the world. "Matt, stay away from any plastic. Don't ask, just… please stay away."

He gave her an odd look but nodded anyway.

Walking up to the house, the brunette knocked, and the door opened to reveal a young boy.

"Hi. Is Clive here? We've been e-mailing." She said, giving the kid what she hoped was a pleasant smile.

"Oh great. I thought you were too pretty to be normal." The kid grumbled. Turning back towards the house he yelled "Dad, it's one of your nutters!"

A middle aged man lumbered to the door and the kid scampered upstairs.

"Hello. You must be Elena. I'm Clive- obviously." He said, and Elena turned her pleasant smile towards him.

Matt interrupted with a mistrustful glare. "Elena, I'm going to be waiting in the car- just in case you try to murder her." He said, the last part to Clive, before turning and heading back to the car.

"Yes, right, no murders here." Clive said, ushering Elena inside.

He led her to his basement- which made Elena suddenly wary of him- and pulled out a folder, which he laid on a table in front of her. Opening it, he pulled out some pictures and showed them to her.

"What are these?" She asked, picking up some and looking at them. To her shock, she spotted the now familiar face of the Doctor in each of them.

"Proof that the Doctor is real." Clive said. "The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings a storm in his wake and one constant companion: death."

The brunette's eyebrows rose at this. He was making the Doctor sound almost like he was harbinger of death and destruction. _But to me he sounded like he was trying to prevent the end of the world. _ She thought, but she kept this to herself and listened to the rest of Clive's conversation- with a grain of salt this time.

"If the Doctor's back, if you've seen him, then one thing's for certain: we're all in danger." He continued, as if she hadn't spaced out.

"So… who do you think he is? What, do you think he is?" She asked, curious to see his theory. She was pretty certain now he wasn't human- or at least, could travel through time.

"I think he is the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world."

-DW-VD-

As the conversation was taking place inside, Matt was sitting in the car, watching the house intently for any sign he needed to rush to Elena's aid.

A noise startled him and he glanced at a trashcan beside the car that suddenly began rattling. He frowned and made a move to get out when he remembered Elena's warning.

His hand paused on the door handle as he hesitated. _I'll just take a peek. _He concluded, and got out. However, when he placed a hand on the lid to open it, he found he was unable to remove it.

Panic began to set in, and the harder he fought the quicker it seemed to suck him in. Before he knew it, he was sucked into the trashcan and knew no more.

-DW-VD-

Clive's words echoed through Elena's head as she walked back to Matt's car. It made sense when she thought about it, but a part of her was screaming to ignore it, that she had dealt with enough non-human things for a lifetime.

"He thinks the Doctor's an alien from another world. Can you believe that? All this time we've been trying to adjust the idea of vampires and werewolves, when there were entirely different cultures happening on new planets all around us!" She exclaimed to her friend as she climbed in the car. She failed to notice the waxy, shiny texture of his skin nor his fixed smile. "I'm thinking about stopping for some burgers- how does that sound?"

"Burgers! B-b-burgers."

If she noticed Matt's sudden trouble pronouncing the simple word, she gave no indication of it.

-DW-VD-

"So where did you meet this… Doctor?" Matt asked Elena as they sat at the Mystic Grill.

"I thought you weren't that interested in him?" She asked, the first signs of warning bells going off in her head.

"Because I imagine it started back at the shop, right? Did he have something to do with that?"

"Nooo." She drew out the word slowly, determined to keep the fact he had blown up the building secret. It wouldn't go over well with anyone- no matter what the reason behind it was.

"Come on." Matt pressed.

"Look… I don't want you to get hurt. Just drop it, ok? He told me 'don't tell anyone unless you want to get them killed', and I don't want that to happen to you Matt." The brunette told him, hoping he would do her a favor and just let it go.

"But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe, sugar, babe, sugar. You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning, and I can help you Elena." The blonde said, and the red alert bells went off like fireworks in her head. This wasn't Matt- Matt hadn't called her that since she broke it off with him.

"Did you order champagne?" A waiter asked.

"Sorry, not ours. What the hell have you done with Matt?!" Elena said, her voice raising, tensing herself to leap out of the chair at a moment's notice.

"Champagne?" A familiar voice asked, and Elena glanced out of the corner of her eye to see the Doctor. She had to fight down the relief threatening to overwhelm her. A small smile broke out across her face.

"Look, we didn't order any champagne." Plastic Matt said, continuing to interrogate Elena. "What is he planning?"

"Doesn't anyone want this?" The Doctor asked, annoyed.

"I said, we didn't- ah." Matt began angrily, before glancing up and realizing exactly who it was standing next to Elena.

"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" He said cheerily, shaking and pointing the bottle towards Matt and popping the top just as Elena shot out of her chair.

The cork hit his head. After a few moments, the plastic spit it out and stood. It's hand turned into a chopper and smashed the table, attempting to deal the Doctor a fatal blow.

Elena ran towards the nearest fire alarm and pulled it out in an attempt to evacuate the building before any innocent bystanders got hurt. "Everyone, get out! Don't stare, just get out!" She commanded. Turning around, she was just in time to see the Doctor pull the things head off. She couldn't help the shock that overcame her- it might not be Matt, but it _looked _just like her best friend.

Somewhere behind her where the Doctor and the now decapitated Plastic Matt were she heard "Don't think that will stop me."

Coming out of her shock at seeing her friend's look alike head's pulled off, she took off through the kitchens and towards one of the alleys, the Doctor hot on her trail.

She slammed the door shut behind them and turned to see the blue police box from earlier standing a few feet away, looking very much solid.

"This thing… it disappeared." The brunette said, amazed at seeing it look so solid. "Can it turn invisible? Is this some sort of space ship or time machine?" She began firing off, forgetting momentarily the danger they were in.

"All of the above. Enough questions, get in." The Doctor replied curtly, opening the doors and walking inside, dragging her in after him.

"It's just wood! How can it do any good?" She couldn't stop herself from asking as Plastic Matt broke down the door to the alleyway.

"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shh."

Elena turned around and almost fainted at the sight before her. This… spaceship… was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.

"The head's perfect- I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?" He rattled oblivious to the fact she had yet to move from her spot.

"What is this? Some sort of other dimension?" She interrupted, still staring around the ship in awe.

"Most people settle for 'it's bigger on the inside'." The Doctor told her.

"You're an alien." It wasn't a statement, the way she said it. It was a fact.

"Yes. That alright?"

She smiled at him. "Stranger things have happened. So, yes, it's perfectly fine."

The Doctor grinned at her. "It's called a TARDIS, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S. 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space'.

She began to grin back when she remembered Matt. "Did they kill him- Matt?" Then she noticed the head on what she assumed was the control console of the spaceship. "The head- it's melting!" She exclaimed.

"What?" He exclaimed whipping around to see it was indeed melting. "No, no, no, no!" He began hitting and pumping random things in an attempt to preserve the signal.

"Can you still follow it?" Elena asked anxiously, taking a step away from her rooted spot by the door.

"It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there… here we go!"

The TARDIS shook a bit and the Doctor ran for the door.

Elena walked outside and saw that they were in the middle of London. "How did we-? It didn't feel like flying."

"That's 'cos we weren't. It disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand it." The man- no, alien- absently told her.

"Do you think we'll find Matt if we find the controller? Will he be alive?"

"Matt this, Matt that. Look, they might be keeping him alive to maintain the copy, but I can't worry about a single human boy while trying to save the life of every stupid blundering ape on this planet, all right?" He told her, annoyance creeping into his voice.

"You really are alien, even though you sound like you're from here." She remarked. "What do these living plastic creatures want? They're being very War of the Worlds about it."

"That's exactly it. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all it's protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!" The Doctor replied. Elena wondered what this 'war' he mentioned was but dropped it for now.

"How do we stop it?"

In response, he held up a vial of blue liquid. "Anti-plastic."

"Anti-plastic?"

"Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it. How do you hide something so big in a city this small?"

"What does it look like?"

"Like a transmitter- round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London." Elena glanced over his shoulder to see the iconic London Eye and raised an eyebrow in it's direction.

It took him awhile, but he eventually caught on to what she was indicating. "Oh, fantastic!" He exclaimed, grabbing her hand and taking off towards the world's largest wheel.

The two climbed down underneath it through a manhole and climbed a ladder into a multileveled chamber illuminated by a gloomy red light.

"The Nestene Consciousness. There it is, in the vat. A living plastic creature."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I've got to give it a chance."

He walked down the catwalk overlooking the vat. "I seek an audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." He boomed into it, his voice taking on one of authority. Elena spotted Matt a level below, and ran towards him as the Doctor did his thing.

"Matt. Thank god you're alright." She said in relief, helping him fight off the plastic dummy trying to restrain him, thankful for asking Alaric to teach her the basics of fighting.

"Elena, get out of here. That thing down there, it's dangerous." Her friend said.

"Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with great respect, that you shunt off?" The Doctor continued from above.

Elena stifled a giggle at his horrible pun.

A face formed in the vat and made a series of strange noises that grated on her ears.

"Oh don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking!" He roared, making Elena jump. The Nestene Consciousness fell silent, making her wonder who exactly the Doctor was to have that much authority. "This planet is just starting. These stupid- and sometimes clever- little people have just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go."

The brunette noticed a couple of mannequins coming up behind the Doctor. "Doctor, behind you!" She yelped. The pair grabbed him however before he could turn to look.

"I'm not your enemy though, I swear. I'm here to help." He said against the living plastic men trying to restrain him. Angry like noises sounded from the vat below them. "What do you mean?"

A door slid back, and Elena spun around to see it revealed the TARDIS. She wondered how the living plastic in the vat knew about it, or how to even find the thing when she remembered that it was trying to take over the world. _But what's the big deal with a spaceship designed as a police box from the, what, 50's? _

Pushing those thoughts away, she helped Matt up and began half helping him, half dragging him towards the blue box.

The Doctor was still trying to reason with the Consciousness from what little Elena was paying attention. "No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship. That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" He said, getting progressively louder towards the end.

There it was, this 'war' mentioned yet again. She really wondered what it was- was there some sort of intergalactic war taking place in some other galaxy, or at least, used to be one, judging by all this talk of worlds being destroyed?

"Doctor, what's it doing?" She called down to him as the vat began roaring at the alien. Something—she didn't know what it was, if it was the Doctor himself or something with him, possibly the TARDIS—was making the thing agitated and probably quite violent.

"It's the TARDIS! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's going into the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Elena! Just leg it out now!" He called back.

Fear gripped her. Everywhere in the world, seemingly harmless mannequins were coming alive, trying to kill unsuspecting shoppers- innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. She couldn't let that happen, there must be a way to stop it… _The anti plastic! _The Doctor still had it; she suddenly knew what she could do, had to do.

Scanning the area she spotted a chain not too far away, long enough to swing her over the vat, kick away the mannequins holding the Doctor, and let him drop the vial into the living plastic below.

Ignoring Matt's yelling—"What are you doing!?"—she ran for the chain.

Heaving an axe she found next to it, she began furiously hacking at the rope holding it. Gripping the chain she swung out across the vat, giving the dummies holding the Doctor a furious kick in the process.

It gave him enough time to pull the vial out and throw it into the vat. The chain Elena was hanging onto for dear life swung back and she found a pair of arms stop her. She glanced up and saw it was the Doctor.

His eyes met hers briefly before he grabbed her hand and took off towards the TARDIS.

-DW-VD-

What felt like only seconds later, Elena stepped out of the TARDIS with Matt by her side on the edge of the forest belonging to the Lockwood property.

Spinning around to face her, the brunette found herself pulled into a tight hug by her childhood friend. "I'm glad you're safe." Matt breathed.

"You too." She replied, returning his hug, not daring to let herself think about how close she could've come to have to bury one of her oldest friends on top of most of her family.

Behind them, she heard someone clearing their throat. "Right then, I'll be off." The Doctor said as the two broke apart. "Unless, er, I don't know, you wanted to come with me?" He added, glancing at Elena, an almost hesitate look crossing his face.

Shock flooded her. It was like a dream come true- a chance to see the world and escape what her life had become. And here it was, an alien that could've chosen anyone in the universe and planet, asking _her_, a small town girl that seemed to always attract trouble to come with him. Her mind was blown that she would be presented an opportunity like this after everything.

"What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and sleep and crappy American telly, or you could go anywhere." He continued.

"Is it always this dangerous?" She asked, already having a feeling she knew the answer.

"Oh yeah." He said, nodding and giving her a small smile.

That should have discouraged her right then and there- she's gotten into enough trouble both intentionally and unintentionally to last her a few lifetimes- but it didn't.

Then another thought hit her: Alaric and Jeremy. She couldn't just up and leave them, especially Jeremy; not after she was the only blood family he had left. She couldn't be that selfish in her desire to escape seemingly constant shadowing and chase an old dream of seeing the stars.

"I-I can't. I can't leave my brother, not when I'm about the only thing he as left." Elena told him, hearing the reluctance in her voice clear as day as she said it.

As soon as she said it, she wanted to take it back. She didn't mean it, she knew that in the heart of hearts that she didn't. _Jeremy, think of him. _She told herself, forcing herself to ignore the feeling of being split down the middle- go or not go?

"Okay." The Doctor seemed to hunch forward. "See you around." He said, walking back inside the TARDIS.

Matt came up and held her hand as they watched the blue box dematerialize.

"You could've gone, you know." The blonde told her quietly. "They would've understood."

Her heart clenched at that. "Not Damon."

"No, but that's a given." He said, giving her a lopsided smile. "But honestly… it's your life. Your decisions, not his. Not theirs."

Just as they turned away, she heard a resonated wheezing sound that sounded just like the noise the TARDIS made.

Whipping around, believing it to just be a figment of her imagination, she saw the ship had indeed materialize- almost like it had not just left.

"By the way, did I also mention it travels in time?" The Doctor said, poking his head outside the door.

"Go." Matt said, pulling her into a tight hug for a brief second. "I'll explain everything to the others, make them see sense."

Heart in her throat, she hugged him for the life of her and murmured "Thank you, thank you, thank you" over and over until it no longer sounded like a word.

Chuckling slightly, he gave her a gentle nudge in the direction of the TARDIS. "Go on. I'll see you… whenever, alright?"

Giving him a brilliant smile wide enough to split her face, the brunette turned and ran full speed towards the blue box, the smile still on her face.

The Doctor opened the door wider for her to enter as she grabbed his hand, a wide grin on his face. She didn't look back, not once.

-DW-VD-

_Warning: Long ramble; best thing would be to skip it._

_So Elena's just become the Doctor's new companion. Should I start including the Doctor's thoughts/POV? Where should they go next- the end of the world? Another time period? A different planet, a different universe? How cannon should I keep this story? (I'm including Jack, and Elena will go missing for a year, so don't worry about that, and I'm thinking about including Bad Wolf possibly)_

_Also, do you think it's possible to write a dark!Doctor/Rose story without explicit smut? Because I've been wanting to write one, but I can't really write smut- especially not explicit smut- and have never tried. The idea behind this is that after the Time War, the Doctor sort of… loses it, and begins inflicting the same misery he feels over losing his people on other universes. Until he lands on Earth and meets Rose, who despite being what he considers an 'inferior ape', he finds her very intriguing and different from the other humans he's come across, and decides to make her his by any means necessary._

_Let me know your thoughts on this chapter, any ideas for it, or even about the dark!Doctor/Rose idea if you want. And, if you're interested in challenges/prompts, check out my Doctor Who Fanfiction Challenges and Prompts forum._

_Until next time._


	3. The End of the World

Chapter 3: End of the World

"Where are we?" Elena asked, standing in the control room of the TARDIS. A glance outside the window on the door told her they were actually _in _space- floating, like a cloud in the sky.

"The Time Vortex. In a nutshell, we're just drifting outside of time and space… it's hard to explain, really." The Doctor replied, glancing at her from his spot next to the control console.

He was right, she probably wouldn't understand, considering she was still trying to wrap her head around the fact time travel was real- along with aliens and other galaxies. Truth be told, she was half doubtful it even was true that they could go anywhere in space and time.

"So," He continued, clapping once, breaking the brunette out of her wondering. "Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time?"

She couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at this. _He's letting _me _pick where to go? _

"I guess… what about two hundred years in the future?" She asked.

The TARDIS shook a bit, and the Doctor gestured towards the exit. "There you go. Step outside those doors, it's the twenty third century."

"Seriously?" Elena asked incredulously.

"Bit boring if you asked me. How about we go further?"

"Fine by me." She said, her voice shaking slightly. _This is insane. _

After a few seconds, he spoke again. "Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it's the year 21005, the New Roman Empire."

Elena couldn't help but tease him as she waited for all this to fully sink in. Not that she was ever expecting to get used to this fully. "You think you're so impressive." She teased, remembering the almost smug way he announced where they were.

"I am so impressive!" He shot back, playing along.

"You wish." She told him.

"Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go!" He exclaimed, plugging in more of… whatever it was into the console that she assumed was what told the ship where to take them.

The TARDIS shook once again, and this time the Doctor made for the doors.

"What is it? What's out there?" The brunette asked, hurrying to catch up with him, curious this time as to where they were- if the Earth would still look like as she remembered it or have more of a _Star Trek _feel to it.

She was not expecting what greeted them outside. It looked like they were in some sort of spaceship. Wide eyed, she turned her head every which way she followed him down a flight of steps.

In front of them, a panel slid back to reveal a large bay window, giving a perfect glimpse of the Earth in all its blue, white, and green glory. It looked absolutely breathtaking, and she couldn't help but stare at it. She'd seen pictures of the Earth from space when she took astronomy, yes, but in person…

"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to be killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids." The Doctor began, and Elena couldn't help but mentally add _Or a thousand year old hybrid_, and held back a shiver like she always did thinking about Klaus.

"But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty six. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day," He trailed off and pulled back his sleeve to glance at a watch she didn't even notice he had. "Hold on."

Elena turned to glance back at the Earth, and was startled to see a bright solar flare turn a vibrant shade of red- beautiful yet at the same time painful to look at.

"This is the day the sun expands." He continued. "Welcome to the end of world." He looked at her when she said it, and the brunette had to fight to stay on her feet. It seemed so surreal, being present at the end of everything that she knew. It seemed even more surreal than learning about the supernatural existing- which was saying something.

As he turned and led her down a corridor, she heard a computer chime to life somewhere and announce in a pleasant voice "_Shuttles five and six are now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion._"

Elena had to admit that the future was very odd, if religion was suddenly banned. She wondered what had happened to make the world like that- was it a series of wars? A plague so devastating people turned their backs completely on religion?

She must have gotten caught up in her musings, because she heard the Doctor ask her in a concerned voice "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, sorry; it's just a lot to take in." She apologized.

"No worries- it happens." He said, smiling at her, and she had to let out a breath of relief. At least he seemed to get that she wasn't going to automatically adapt to all this.

"_Earth death is scheduled for fifteen thirty nine followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite." _The computer continued before it went quiet.

Elena and the Doctor walked down the hallway for a bit in silence.

"Wait… by guests, does it mean people?"

"Depends what you mean by people." He told her.

"I mean people, you know… humans. What do you mean?"

"Aliens." He said, and even though she should have expected that, it was still a bit shocking to hear aliens mentioned so casually. Then she remembered she was voluntarily travelling with one.

"What are they doing aboard this spaceship?" Elena asked, changing the subject.

"It's not really a spaceship, more like an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn." He replied, shooting her a spare glance before pulling out the silver instrument she recognized from the night at the department store and holding it up to a panel on the wall.

"What for?" It seemed like an odd thing- and quite sadistic, in her honest opinion- to gather and watch a planet burn.

"Fun." The Doctor replied, so casually Elena almost started laughing. Instead she just followed him through to a large gallery.

"What about the people?"

"Gone; by now they've completely spread out across the galaxy. Earth's practically abandoned." He replied, just as a humanoid blue skinned alien with gold slit eyes spotted them.

"Who the hell are you?" He (or was the proper term it?) demanded.

"Oh, that's nice, thanks." The Doctor said sarcastically.

"But how did you get in?" He/it mused as if the Doctor hadn't even spoken. "This is a maximum security hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

"That's me. I'm a guest. Look." He said, pulling something leather out of his jacket and showing it to the alien. Elena didn't see much of it, other than a blank square of white paper. "I've got an invitation. You see? It's fine. The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor, and Elena is my plus one. Is that alright?"

The blue alien nodded. "Apologies, et cetera. If you're onboard, we better start." He said, walking over towards some sort of podium.

"What's that?" Elena questioned as he put the leather case back in his pocket.

"Slightly psychic paper. It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time." He explained.

Just then, the blue alien Elena was assuming was the host spoke up again, announcing the guests had arrived and that 'there would be an exchange of gifts representing peace'.

A variety of different species was introduced. There were three trees, known as Jabe, Lute, and Coffa from somewhere called 'Forest of Chem' and another blue alien- only this one was very fat and moved on some sort of hover transport known as Moxx of Balhoon from 'Jolc and Jolc'. She didn't mind those, but it was the black robed, black hooded group of people known as the Adherents of the Repeated Meme that gave her the creeps. A few more were mentioned, but Elena could only stare at the silent black hooded group. Something about them didn't sit right with her.

The first people to approach them were the trees.

"The Gift of Peace." The woman- Jabe- said, holding up a twig in a pot. "I bring you a cutting of my grandfather."

"Thank you." The Doctor said, taking it from her. "Yes, gifts. Er, I give you return air from my lungs." He then proceeded to blow gently on her.

"How intimate." The tree woman said.

"There's more where that came from." He replied, and Elena could only stare. Was… he flirting with her?

_Not your business. _She told herself. _He probably does this on a regular basis- he's good looking enough. _

_Wait_… where did that come from? She hardly knew him, and here she was thinking he was good looking. _Well, he is, in that rugged way. _A tiny voice told her. _But he's an alien. _She reminded. _And? Stefan was a vampire. _The voice challenged back.

As she was perplexing over this, the steward announced a few more guests- most notably someone named the 'Face of Boe' who was a fairly large humanoid head in a tank. Other guests came up and presented gifts (Elena received a spit in the face from the fat blue alien as one of them) and the black robed group she had been eyeing warily handed them a tiny metal sphere.

The Doctor gave each of them the same one he gave Jabe- breath, which while she found it odd, was glad he thought of something otherwise they would've been screwed.

"… and last but not least, our very special guests. Ladies and gentlemen, and trees and multiforms, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying planet, we call forward the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen." The steward concluded.

Elena looked up; attention completely refocused on what was happening in front of her, and was thoroughly shocked to see that the last human… wasn't even human. Instead, it was a thin patch of skin stretched on a metal frame with a woman's face in the middle. _The hell has humanity come to? _She wondered, unable to tear her gaze away.

"Oh now, don't stare. I know, I know, it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me, moisturize me." The 'human' said, and one of her two helpers sprayed water on her. Elena could already tell just from those few sentences that she was utterly and completely vain- worse than Caroline ever was before being turned into a vampire.

"Truly, I am the last human." Cassandra continued prattling. "My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye. Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity."

As she was speaking, an old jukebox from a decade Elena couldn't place was rolled out.

"According to the archives, this was called an iPod." _No, that's a jukebox- iPod's were much thinner and smaller than that. _She thought. "It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"

A song Elena vaguely recognized as 'Tainted Love' played out, and suddenly everything became too much. She hurriedly made her way towards the exit and left, hoping the Doctor would understand.

She shot one last glance behind her at him and saw he had moved to follow her before Jabe intercepted him to take… a picture? She didn't stay to find out. If she had, she would've noticed the awed and puzzled expression on the tree woman's face and begun wondering just exactly _what _she was traveling with.

-DW-VD-

Elena found herself staring outside one of the smaller windows aboard the observation deck, watching the sun expand little by little. Movement out of the corner of her eye made her turn to see a woman of the same race as the steward approach. She suddenly wondered if she was even allowed here.

"Am I allowed here?" She asked the woman.

"You have to give us permission to talk." Was their response.

She furrowed her brows at this- wasn't this supposed to have disappeared by now or did humanity completely do some sort of 180 in the course of five billion years? "Er, you have permission." She said lamely.

"Thank you. And yes, you are. Guests are allowed anywhere." The woman told her.

"What's your name?" The brunette asked as the woman began messing with a wall panel.

"Raffalo. I won't be long, miss. I've just got to carry out some maintenance. There's a tiny glitch in the Face of Boe's suite. There must be something blocking the system. He's not getting any hot water." She responded, continuing her task of tinkering with the wall panel.

"So… you're a plumber?" Elena guessed, hoping that's what it was still called.

"That's right miss."

"They still have plumbers?" She asked for confirmation, overwhelmed with shock and happiness that something from her time period remained relatively the same.

"I should hope so, otherwise I'd be out of a job."

"Where are you from?" It would be nice to know what planets had life forms. Besides, Raffalo had been very nice to her.

"Crespallion."

"Is that a planet?" She felt dumb for asking it, but what was she expecting? She was from the past.

"No. Crespallion's part of the Jaggit Brocade, affiliated to the Scarlet Junction, Convex fifty six." All of that sounded like Latin to the brunette human's ears. "And where are you from, miss? If you don't mind me asking." Raffalo continued, pausing in her work to look at Elena.

"I don't mind." She replied, giving the blue skinned woman a small smile. "A long way away. I just sort of hitched a ride with a man. I didn't even think about it." A suddenly disturbing thought hit her. "I don't even know who he is. He's a complete stranger." As soon as she said it, she remembered she was in the presence of company. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. Good luck."

"Thank you, miss. And, er, thank you for the permission. Not many are that considerate." Raffalo told her, and that was enough to quell the panic Elena had begun to feel over realizing she'd acted idiotically and jumped on a spaceship with an alien she knew jack about for a brief moment.

"You're welcome." She replied, giving her another smile before heading off to find a quiet spot where she could ponder what she was going to do about the situation she currently found herself in.

-DW-VD-

Elena had found a nice empty room to brood over her thoughts. She could almost hear her friends comments on how much she looked like Stefan. _No, wait, that'd be Damon. _She reminded herself.

"Elena?" The Doctor's voice rang out, startling her. "Are you in here?" Spotting her, he sat down next to her on the opposite side of the steps. "What do you think so far?" He asked, spreading out and look at her.

"It's definitely… different. I'm handling, though." She told him. "The aliens are very… alien."

"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South." She had a feeling he wasn't talking about the 'Deep South' she usually associated with states like Georgia, Alabama, etc.

"They all speak English." She remarked.

"No, that's the TARDIS, translating it for you; one of the gifts. It's telepathic, gets inside your brain and translates." He explained. She didn't bother showing her surprise and was just going to go with the flow from now on.

"Who are you, Doctor?" Elena asked, finally voicing the questions she'd spent the past few minutes longing to now the answers to for the sake of her own sanity. "What are you called, what sort of alien are you?"

"I'm just the Doctor". He said, like that was the easiest answer to everything.

"From what planet?" She tried again, starting to get desperate for some answers. He had secrets, fine, she got it- she knew she was keeping a lot of things from him- but a little information would be enough.

"It's not like you'd know where it is." He said, and she noticed he was starting to become defensive.

"Where are you from?"

"Why does it matter?" He shot back, swinging around and sitting back up.

She just stared at him. _Because I don't know _anything_ about you! Only that you can travel through space and time. And it's killing me! _She screamed inside.

"Just… can you please tell me who you are? Just a little bit, to ease my mind." She practically begged.

"This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me." He told her, and she could clearly here the agitation and defensiveness in his voice.

She felt her annoyance at his lack of answers deflate. "All right, I'm sorry."

Elena noticed he seemed to let go of some of his emotion as well out of the corner of her eye. She pulled out her phone and eyed it. "I wish I could call Jeremy, just see how he is." She muttered.

"Tell you what." The Doctor said, startling her with his surprisingly good hearing. Wordlessly- still shocked that he would do something even after she clearly annoyed him- she handed it to him. "With a little bit of jiggery pokery." He began, taking it apart and putting something in it.

"Is that a technical term?" She asked.

"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?" He asked.

She had no idea how to respond to that, which she was finding happened a lot around him. "No… I must have failed it."

"Oh. Here you go." He said, handing her the phone back. She immediately dialed Jeremy's number.

"_Elena?_"

She almost began crying at hearing the sound of his voice. "Hey Jer."

"_Are you alright? You sound a little off." _

"Yeah, I'm fine. What day is it?"

"_Tuesday. Why?" _

"Listen… Matt's going to tell you something soon- I don't know when- and it will sound completely unbelievable, but I'm asking for both you and Alaric to hear him out, alright?" She said, remembering the promise her friend had made her.

"_Ok… you're not making sense, but alright." _

She sighed. "Thanks- listen, I've got to go. I love you."

"_Love you too. And Elena? Try to get some sleep- I think the nightmares must be starting up again." _She blanched at the memory of the nightmares she only stopped having a few days prior to meeting the Doctor- nightmares about the sacrifice and Klaus.

Elena disconnected the call- and then it hit her. "That was five billion years ago. He's dead now. My brother's dead. How is that possible?"

"Aren't you just a bundle of joy?" He told her sarcastically. "As for how it's possible, you wouldn't begin to understand."

The space station suddenly shook and she looked at him.

"That's not supposed to happen." He remarked, and rushed out of the room with her following him.

-DW-VD-

"… this is a Bad Wolf scenario." They entered in time to hear Moxx say. "I find the inherit laxity going on in the multiverse."

"That wasn't a gravity pocket." The Doctor interrupted. "I know what those feel like, and it isn't like that." He broke off for a bit. "Jabe, where's the engine room?"

"I don't know, but the maintenance room is just behind our suite. I could show and your wife." The tree woman said, and Elena couldn't stop her eyes from bugging out of her head. _They thing we're-?! _She glanced at the Doctor next to her.

"She's not my wife." He said quickly, and she nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Partner?"

"No." He said, while Elena just shook her head and suddenly prayed to be sallowed whole by something.

"Concubine?"

"Nope."

"Prostitute?" At that, Elena finally had enough and left the room for the second time, feeling slightly insulted that someone would assume she was a prostitute if she wasn't someone's lover, and disturbed at the fact people thought her and the Doctor _were_ lovers.

_You know, I might go see where Cassandra went to… _She thought, catching up with the 'last human' suddenly was sounding very interesting despite her dislike of the woman.

-DW-VD-

She found her in an observation gallery.

"Soon, the sun will blossom into a red giant, and my home will die. That's where I used to live, when I was a little boy, down there. Mummy and Daddy had a little house built into the side of the Los Angeles Crevice. I'd have such fun." Cassandra said as Elena came up beside her.

_How can you be a boy and then a woman? Oh, wait- transgender. _She thought, surprised such procedures still existed. "What happened to everyone else? Where did they go?"

"They say mankind has touched every star in the sky."

"So you're not the last human?" The brunette guessed, glancing at her fellow 'human'.

"I am the last pure human. The others mingled." She spat the word 'mingled' like it was the foulest word in existence. "Oh, they call themselves New humans and Proto-humans and Digi-humans, even 'Humanish', but you know what I call them? Mongrels."

_I'm sure they're more pleasant than you. _She thought.

Cassandra went on to ramble about how much 'flatter' Elena could look, until the other human couldn't stand it.

"I think I'd rather die- again- than do that. It's better than to live like you… a… vain, bitchy… trampoline." She told her, standing up, thoroughly finished listening to Cassandra.

-DW-VD-

Elena found herself back in the room where she had gotten into the argument with the Doctor, and sat on the steps, watching as the Earth came ever close to being destroyed. The computer continued counting down the minutes.

As she sat, her mind wandered. She wondered if the others were looking for her since by now they would realize she wasn't with any of them and if they thought Klaus had taken her. She knew Damon would more than likely tear the town apart to find her, and wouldn't rest until he saw her for himself.

Once, she would've been kind of touched someone who claimed to not feel anything would do something like that for her, but now it just disturbed her.

She felt the guilt return at the thought of Jeremy and Alaric, and Bonnie and Caroline. They didn't deserve to go through the pain she knew they were about to go through but… she had to get out. She was suffocating, slowly dying back there.

_Matt, please tell them soon that they have nothing to worry about. _She prayed, knowing it would be easier if they heard it in person instead of over a phone where they could assume she'd been compelled.

Suddenly, the computer chimed back to life- but it didn't say how much longer the Earth had. Instead, it said "Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending."

As it did, the protective shield began to sink, causing the suns deadly rays to come through and began to burn everything in its path.

Panic setting in, Elena raced for the door and began hammering on it with all her might. "Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!" She screamed, her fists becoming more and more bruised the harder she pounded but she hardly noticed.

"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending." The computer continued to drone, and the human shot a frantic glance behind her to see the beams were coming closer to her.

"Anyone in there?" The Doctor's voice said from outside the door.

"Let me out!" She yelled, hoping his silver instrument thing could somehow get her out of here before she turned into nothing but a pile of ashes.

"Oh, well, it would be you." Elena heard him mutter.

"Open the door! Please!" She cried, hunching down as the light came closer to her.

"Hold on. Give us two ticks."

The brunette prayed he would be fast enough and that if not, it wouldn't hurt like having her blood drained by Klaus did when she heard the sweetest sound- sweeter than the Doctor's voice just minutes ago.

"Sun filter raising. Sun filter raising." The computer droned, and Elena let out a shaky sigh of relief. However, it didn't last. "Sun filter descending." It began droning again.

"Just what we need." The Doctor muttered from the other side.

"Please, hurry up!"

"I'm trying! It's getting clever. It's fighting back!" He shouted at her as she ran down the steps to further avoid the deadly rays. "The whole things jammed! I can't open it. Stay there!" He added, and she vaguely heard his footsteps disappear.

"Where am I going to go?!" She asked no one in particular.

-DW-VD-

It seemed to take ages for the Doctor to do his thing, but just as she was prepared to become nothing more than ashes floating in space she heard "Exoglass raising. Exoglass raising."

She opened her eyes- not that she recalled closing them in the first place- in time to see the fractured remains of Earth float by. She felt saddened that she missed seeing such a critical point in history, but was more thankful to be alive.

_He didn't lie when he said it was dangerous. _She thought as she raced out of the room to find the Doctor.

-DW-VD-

Turns out, it was Cassandra who organized the whole thing. Elena wasn't that surprised- she was a vile thing.

"Are you alright?" She asked the Doctor when she'd found him- also when she learned who had tried to kill them- noticing he looked grim over something.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm full of ideas. Bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees requires some sort of feed. Idea number two, the feed must be hidden nearby." He walked over and smashed the ostrich egg, revealing a tiny device. "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, the teleportation can be reversed."

He suddenly beamed Cassandra back into the room.

"Oh." Was all she said.

"The last human."

"You passed my little test. Bravo! That makes you eligible to join the, er, human club." She said with false cheerfulness.

"People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them." He replied, and Elena glanced around and found the fat blue alien- Moxx?- had disappeared, along with Jabe. She suddenly had a feeling she knew what the Doctor had been grim about when she first found him.

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter-" Cassandra began, but suddenly started creaking.

"And creak?" The Doctor said.

"What?"

"You're creaking." Elena chimed in.

"Ah! I'm drying out. Moisturize me, moisturize me!" She exclaimed, suddenly panicking.

"You raised the temperature."

As Cassandra's creaking became more severe, Elena's compassionate side took over. Cassandra may be a vile thing that murdered people- because while not human, they still had emotions, something that ultimately defines the words 'human condition'- but she still couldn't stand by and let her die. "Help her." She asked the Doctor.

"Everything has its time and everything dies." He stated simply- almost harshly.

Cassandra went _splat_ barely a second after the words left his mouth.

-DW-VD-

"The end of the earth. No one noticed." Elena said, standing beside the Doctor as the two watched what remained of the Earth float by.

"Come with me." He said, reaching for her hand, which she let him take.

The two made their way back to the TARDIS, and when Elena next stepped out in the middle of a crowd- her own time.

"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before it's time." The Doctor said suddenly, coming up beside her.

"What, what happened?" She stammered, surprised he was sharing this with her when he got so defensive of it before.

"There was a war and we lost."

Elena's mind flashed back to what he had said to the Nestene Consciousness—"_I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!"_—and had a feeling about where this was going.

"A war with who?" She pressed gently. "What about your people?"

"I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lord's. They're all gone. I'm left traveling on my own 'cos there's no one else. I'm the only survivor." He told her, and her heart broke for him.

She understand the pain he must feel- she'd been forced to watch almost all of her family die in front of her, powerless to stop it. _We're not so different after all. _She thought, reaching out and taking his hand, squeezing it slightly.

"There's me." She said, determined now to stay with him. No one should be alone.

"You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?" He asked her.

"Doctor… you'd be surprised the danger I've been in before." She said softly. "I'm not leaving."

He looked at her curiously at that, but she ignored it and hoped he would let it go for now.

"Come on, I smell food." She said. "My treat. We've only got… five billion years before they close." At that, he smiled lightly, and they took off down the crowded sidewalk.

Neither realized they were still holding hands, but neither particularly cared much right now.

-DW-VD-

"So… Elena, is there anything I should know about you?" The Doctor asked, picking up another chip and eating it. Why the Americans insisted on calling them 'French fries' he'd never know. Sometimes it seemed like out of all the typically dumb apes on this planet, that the Americans were the worst.

_Except the one in front of you. _He mused.

She looked uncomfortable at his question and seemed to fidget, something he found interesting and odd. "My parents are dead, along with my entire family minus my brother and guardian, and I have a very overprotective group of loved ones. That's it, really." The human told him, hardly meeting his gaze.

He could sense it was more than that, but let it go- for now. Rassilon knew there were things he still hadn't told her, about himself, the Time War, and Time Lords in general, and if she had her secrets, fine.

It didn't stop him from worrying about what they were- if they posed any type of threat. Try as he might, he couldn't stop himself from already caring deeply about the human girl across from him—especially after she told him she wouldn't leave, even after she almost died in the space station earlier.

The two walked back to the TARDIS after Elena paid the bill, and the Time Lord couldn't help but glance around as they did so, wondering if something from her past she was hiding was going to jump out and attack her.

He didn't think twice about the brown haired, green eyed teenager his gaze passed over who's eyes gave away that he was, in fact, not human as they spoke of time- a teenager who watched the pair with an interested gaze.

-DW-VD-

_A change of point of view at the end, but I couldn't resist. You'll get more of the Doctor's POV soon- especially when him and Elena return to Mystic Falls. I'm thinking about having the Doctor get a taste of Elena's 'secret past' in the next chapter by her having a nightmare about Klaus, but other than that I don't know if I'll have them go back in time or go to another planet. And I am planning on sometime soon- more than likely at least when they re-arrive in Mystic Falls- have the Doctor start to, ah, become kind of possessive of Elena. (Because he kind of was with Rose in cannon- or is that just too many fanfics of them I've been reading?)_

_And the only reason this is being updated constantly as a) I'm finishing the first season of Doctor Who and I _really _don't feel like going on a crying jag right now, b) am on spring break, and c) just love this so much. Please don't get used to these updates, as once school starts back up they'll became less and less frequent, particularly when exams come around in late May, early June. _


	4. Visit to the Eye of Orion

_Thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far- you give me hope that maybe I can actually write something for Doctor Who fairly decently._

_I'm thinking about changing the summary for this story… what do you think? Should I keep it or use the new one?_

_Current Summary: He gave her the stars, the universe, new worlds... a chance to escape, and in turn she healed the lingering wounds of war. It was amazing what a different time, a different place, a different person, can do for one's destiny._

_New Summary: When the Doctor saves an 18 year old Elena from the Autons, neither of them were prepared for the direction their lives would take. Elena finally had a chance to escape the suffocating protectiveness of her friends and family and the Doctor had found someone who could help him heal from the Time War. However, he soon learns she isn't as normal as he first believed._

Chapter 4: Visit to the Eye of Orion

"No wonder you never sit still." Elena said, glancing at the Time Lord beside her, who was indeed messing with something under the control console. "You can go back and see days long past- relive them as if they're the present." She added, remembering the conversation they'd had about where to go when she'd first arrived.

They weren't doing much currently- just floating in the Time Vortex, with him tinkering with something and her watching. She had to admit, the greenish light from the rotor was beginning to lull her off into sleep but she fought it.

"Not a bad life." The Doctor told her, reappearing briefly long enough to smile at her before ducking back under.

"Better with two, though." The human said, returning his smile- not that he could see it from where he was.

"Alright, where do you want to go next?" He asked, fully reemerging from underneath the console.

"How about you choose? You know more about traveling than I do."

The Doctor seemed to think about it for a bit, before a grin spread across his face. "Then I know exactly where to go!" He told her, nudging her aside and plugging more coordinates in. The brunette would never learn _how _anyone discovered coordinates existed in space, but figured it must be something to do with the superior technology and whatnot of the Time Lords.

He hadn't told her anything else about his now extinct race, but she'd managed to piece together that they had been generally intelligent, very advanced people. _Obviously, to be able to figure out how to travel through time and space._

"Where are we going?" She asked, his eagerness causing excitement to rise and the lingering fatigue to dissipate. Anything that got him eager must be something very interesting.

"It's a surprise." He replied, his grin taking on a hint of mischief. "And nothing you say or do will get me to tell you, so don't even think about it." He added, already seeing the objection forming on his companion's face.

Elena shot him a glare but kept silent, despite curiosity gnawing her from the inside out. The moment she felt the TARDIS shake in landing, she leapt from her spot and made for the doors.

Tossing them open, she was greeted by nothing but lush grass shrouded in mist. It didn't look like much, but for some reason just looking at it caused a sense of tranquility and peace to wash over her.

"Welcome, Elena, to the Eye of Orion." The Doctor said from behind her, making her jump. She turned and saw he was smiling.

"Where are we? Is this some sort of planet?" She asked, glancing at the landscape. It looked almost like Earth, yet she'd never felt this much peace… it was like as long as she stayed here, she wouldn't have to worry about anything ever again. It was a kind of nice feeling, actually. "And what's with the sudden feeling of peace?"

"To answer your first question, yes, this is another planet. It's considered one of the most tranquil places in the universe- quite apt, if you ask me." He replied. "The peaceful feeling you're getting is because it's constantly bombarded by positive ions."

The brunette had to agree with him; she was at the most peace she'd ever been. A very welcome relief after the way the past few years had gone, with losing her parents, Jenna, Klaus' ritual…

"What are we doing here? Not that I'm not glad you showed me this but… is there any particular reason we're here?" She continued, hating to sound unappreciative.

"No real reason." The Time Lord told her, shrugging. "I figured you'd need proof we could go to other planets and I thought 'why not show her one of the best places possible?'"

"Any doubt I had about you and time travel disappeared on that space station. But thank you." Elena told him. He just smiled slightly before stepping outside and glancing behind him as if to ask 'You coming?'

She didn't hesitate to head out after him, secretly hoping they could stay here for awhile.

-DW-VD-

The Doctor couldn't stop himself from smiling at the look on Elena's face when she first saw the planet. It was always fun seeing how they reacted to a new planet.

He had meant what he'd said about taking her here to show her proof, but there had been more to it. He was secretly hoping being here would quiet the storm he felt in his mind, left over from the war, before it drove him mad. So far it seemed to be working.

_And, judging by her expressions, it's doing wonders for her too._

She really did look carefree and utterly at peace, something that seemed to transform her entirely. No longer did she look stressed or worried or fearful about something; just peaceful with a brilliant smile on her face.

"What?" He hadn't realized he'd been staring until she turned to face him, her smile slipping somewhat.

"Nothing."

The human looked at him for a few seconds, obviously trying to see how truthful he was being. He was glad he'd long since mastered the ability to disguise his emotions past the depiction of humans, and sure enough her smile returned and she forgot anything had possibly been wrong. Not that there was.

"Well… are we going to stand here all day or are we going to have, I don't know, some fun?" She asked.

In response, he grabbed her hand and took off, granting a laugh from her. He didn't know exactly what 'fun' they could have here- what he recalled from visits in his past incarnations, there wasn't much- but he wasn't someone to let a trip to go to waste.

-DW-VD-

The calming effect of the planet seemed to effect the Doctor as well, as Elena noticed how at times the brooding expression he wore completely disappeared. It's like he was a new person and could almost see him like this if the Time War had never happened.

Seeing him even briefly without it caused her to see him in a completely new light. He looked almost like someone she could easily see herself becoming close to- someone she could laugh and forget everything with.

As they went further on the planet, Elena began to see trees and rocks appear, indicating that there was more than lush grass to it. The mist never let up however.

"Where are we going?" She called after a few more minutes of doing nothing but walking. Somewhere along the way their hands had separated and he had begun walking ahead of her.

"No idea." He called back, and she couldn't stop herself from laughing.

They walked for a bit longer, when a set of large stones in the distance caught the brunette's attention. They seemed out of place here, even though she'd already seen quite a few rocks. Curiosity got the best of her and she headed for it.

Coming closer, she was shocked to find they weren't stones but in fact ruins. They seemed to be a memorial to something, and had etchings of some language she couldn't for life of her read carved on it.

"Hey Doctor… look at this!" She shouted in the direction that she had last seen him. "These appear to be some sort of ancient memorial." She added when she saw him begin to catch up with her.

What she was not expecting was his reaction. Upon seeing what she had discovered, he froze, looking like someone who had just seen a very frightening and unwelcome ghost.

"What is it?" Elena asked, her worry beginning to overcome the peaceful feeling the planet gave off.

He didn't respond for a bit. "This isn't a memorial for something on the planet." He finally said softly. "It's a memorial of the Time War."

And she understood why he had looked so haunted seeing it. To see a memorial for something terrible that had happened, something you had been a part of and lost everything because, it was enough to overcome any calming effects.

She had a feeling that their visit to this planet was done, and sure enough they were heading back to the TARDIS not long after.

-DW-VD-

Once on the TARDIS, the Doctor immediately engrossed himself in something to do with it, leaving Elena to go off by herself. Sensing he wanted to be alone- and knowing they wouldn't be going anywhere for a bit- she settled for exploring.

She had known the ship was large but she was not prepared for just how big it was. It seemed never ending. And there were so many rooms!

There were a few bedrooms, a kitchen, what looked like a library, a med bay, and probably others she didn't get around to finding yet. _How does he manage to get around without getting lost? _She wondered.

Then she remembered he had mentioned something about the TARDIS being telepathic, and pieced together the two of them must have some sort of connection.

As she explored, she began to feel the fatigue seep back in, and found her eyelids drooping. Deciding it was a good idea to get some shut eye, she began making her way to where she remembered seeing an empty bedroom when suddenly the door appeared before her.

Wordless, she glanced around for a bit, before realizing it must have been the TARDIS's doing. Smiling gratefully- and surprised at it- she whispered a 'thank you' before entering the room and falling asleep.

-DW-VD-

_How can humans stand to sleep so much? _The Doctor thought as he began running a diagnostic check. He knew it wasn't needed, but honestly it gave him something to do, something to get his mind off of what he had found on the Eye of Orion.

When he had sent an inquiry to the TARDIS where Elena had gone- he knew she had gone off exploring, but hadn't heard any movement from her in awhile- she sent him an image of his companion sleeping.

That had been what he assumed was a few hours ago and she was still sleeping. Being a Time Lord, he knew he didn't need that much sleep, but he also knew he wasn't getting any older. Sure, he would eventually regenerate at some point, but he wouldn't _die_- not like humans did.

They had such short lives- they were like candles, burning bright but snuffed out far too quickly- and they seemed to spend a good portion of it sleeping. He came to the conclusion he would never fully understand the way humans worked and settled for figuring out where they could go next.

A loud scream, however, caused him to leap up and look around for the source. He then realized the scream had been very feminine, and knew there was only one other person than him on here.

The TARDIS seemed to understand his need to figure out why Elena was suddenly screaming and helped him by moving her room closer to the console room.

Opening the door, he found the brunette thrashing around, tangled in sheets with a fine sheen of sweat on her. He could smell the fear coming off of her, and knew she must be in the middle of a nightmare. What, he had no idea. He knew some of the things they would see throughout their travels would be enough to cause them, but he didn't remember taking her anywhere where that would become a problem. _Unless you include the space station, where she _did_ almost die. _

Having no idea what else to do, he walked over to her and began shaking her gently in an attempt to get her to wake up.

"Elena." He whispered. "It's a nightmare- not real."

"Klaus!" She suddenly shouted, bolting upright at the same moment and almost catching the Time Lord off balance at her sudden movement.

The Doctor couldn't help the confusion that descended on him at the mention of this 'Klaus'. Was this someone from her past? Somehow he had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer.

"Doctor?" At her voice he was pulled back to the present. "Oh, god, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you." She apologized as she tried to control her breathing. He could faintly hear her single heart beating faster than normal.

"Nightmares happen." He told her. "Though, I don't recall ever meeting a 'Klaus'. Some old friend of yours?" He continued, trying to appear as casual as he tried to find out more. Wouldn't it be just his luck to choose a companion who's already gone through some sort of hell?

At the name, she went rigid, her expression becoming one of fear. _Now_ he was really curious to learn more about her past.

"You could say that." She finally said shakily. "It's nothing, just… forget about it. I'll be fine now." He knew she was trying to divert his attention from the subject, and was half tempted to try and press for more before deciding she'd let him in on it when she was ready. "And Doctor… thank you." She added as he began to leave the room.

He knew she meant for waking her up, and he nodded before heading back to the console room, though he couldn't get his mind off of wondering who this Klaus was and what else he didn't know about his new companions past.

-DW-VD-

_Should I rewrite this chapter- add things, make it longer, etc.?_

_I'm not quite sure what happened here… other than getting the Doctor interested in learning more about Elena's past. I'm thinking about having them go back in time for a chapter or two- in which I might have the first hint of feelings develop- before having them return to Mystic Falls. What do you think?_


	5. The Unquiet Dead

_I'm sorry at how close this is to cannon. Originally I was going to have the Doctor and Elena go back in time to another time period but I wasn't satisfied with where it was going so this is what came out instead. I'm going to do a few more chapters of Elena and the Doctor traveling before having them return to Mystic Falls to give them a closer bond- should it still be a year that's passed for everyone in Mystic Falls or a bit longer? And where should they go next?_

Chapter 5: The Unquiet Dead

It had taken her a bit, but Elena had finally calmed down enough after the Doctor left to fall back asleep. And she kicked herself repeatedly as she did.

The nightmares about Klaus had stopped about a week ago- just abruptly halted, without her having to take any form of sleeping pills or anything to achieve it. She thought that had been the end of it, that maybe she'd be able to get a decent night of sleep for the first time in about a month.

After the first nightmare free night, she had begun meditating and other mind strengthening exercises to continue keeping them at bay, with amazing results as the nightmares stayed away. She was able to be more productive and active at work and even had time to try and get things back to normal.

And until last night- or whenever, as she had been told time didn't exist here in the Vortex- it had worked, to the point she had forgotten about them until Jeremy brought it up again when she'd asked him to listen to Matt's explanation.

The brunette wasn't sure why they all of the sudden returned but the more she thought about it the more certain she was it had to do with their brief visit to the Eye of Orion. The planet's calming effects must have caused her to let her mental guard down after returning to the TARDIS, allowing the nightmares to seep back in.

Shivering as she got up out of the bed she made her way towards a conjoined bathroom, eager to wash off the lingers of the dreams. She could still feel the heat of the fire, the pain as Klaus bit into her and the agonizing feeling of having her blood forcibly drained, and found herself scrubbing her skin harder, until it was beet red.

Standing under the water for a few seconds to let her now irritated skin settle she stepped out and put her clothes back on, which thankfully didn't seem to be in that bad of shape.

Exiting the room she began making her way towards where she remembered the console room was, trying to hide the awkwardness she was feeling. How exactly did one go about facing someone like a Time Lord after having a nightmare in front of him or her?

The Doctor was standing next to the control console and glanced up when she entered. She sent a prayer that he wouldn't bring up the nightmare. She wasn't ready to share it with him- or anyone.

"How does the past sound? 1860." He asked. "You've been to the future and the Eye of Orion- it's about time you saw a little history."

"What happens in 1860?" She asked, grateful he wasn't bringing the nightmare up. She raked her brain for any important historical event; all she could think of was the Civil War- and that Damon and Stefan would both still be human at this time.

The idea of seeing either of them as human was almost as hard to wrap her head around as time travel and aliens were. She knew they once had been but she'd always known them as the vampires she had come to care deeply about. _Even love. _She added, remembering her and Stefan, and automatically pushed that away. The brunette had made it her mission to let go of him and move on and wasn't about to slip up now.

"I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!" He replied, plugging in the necessary coordinates.

She did indeed need to hold on to something as the TARDIS, for whatever reason, decided to land rougher than usual this time. Her grip slipped when they landed, causing her to stumble into the Doctor. It caught him off balance and the two landed on the floor, slightly on top of each other.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Nothing broken. I think." She replied as he got off of her. Standing up, she added, "Where are we?"

He glanced at the console and grinned. "I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."

"It's Christmas." Elena said, feeling her head spin. For her, Christmas was still months away- but here it was hardly a day away.

"All yours."

"Come on." She said, smiling, her excitement taking hold of her. She began making her way towards the door when she felt the Doctor lightly grab her arm, halting her.

"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella." He told her. The brunette glanced down at her attire: jeans, t-shirt, jacket. _Definitely not 1800's style. _She thought.

"There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!" He continued, and she rapidly tried to remember the directions as she turned away to find the wardrobe and more appropriate attire.

-DW-VD-

Elena did indeed find appropriate attire of their current time period- along with appropriate clothes for what must be almost every other time period possible. Changing into a dress she found that looked similar to the ones she knew were typically worn in this time period, she slowly retraced her steps to the console room.

The dress was dark red with black lace over the bodice and short off shoulder sleeves. Seeing as it was winter she draped a black shawl around her shoulders and tied it. All in all it wasn't bad, but it took a bit to get used to walking around in it.

"Blimey!" She heard the Doctor exclaim when she finally reached the console room.

"Don't laugh." She told him, halting.

"You look beautiful, considering." He said, making her pause and her heart to unwillingly start beating a little faster.

"Considering what?" She asked, curious, ignoring to the best of her ability the reaction she was having to his compliment. _Big deal. _She told herself.

"That you're human."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment." Elena told him. "Aren't you going to change?" She added, seeing the Time Lord was still wearing his leather jacket and dark jeans- not as noticeable as her previous clothing but still might look somewhat out of place.

"I've changed my jumper. Come on." He replied, heading for the doors. She hurried to catch up and ended up reaching them before him. Opening them, she gingerly stepped out into freshly fallen snow. Everywhere was covered in snow, making it both chilly and beautiful.

"Ready?" The Doctor said, coming up behind her and offering Elena his arm, which she took trying to hide her surprise. "Here we go. History."

The two walked down the street, still arm in arm. Elena could faintly hear Christmas carols being sung by choirs on street corners. As the Doctor stopped and bought a newspaper she clearly heard 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' being sung and couldn't help but start humming along.

"I got the flight a bit wrong." He suddenly said, causing her to stop humming in the middle of a phrase and look at him. "It's not 1860, it's 1869."

"I don't care." She said, not really minding what year it was. To her 1869 had to potential to be just as interesting as 1860, and already was since it was Christmas Eve.

"And it's not Naples. It's Cardiff." He continued like she hadn't spoken. This made her stop.

"Right." She said, not entirely sure what to make of this.

Suddenly, screams pierced the otherwise rather quiet night, making the singer's stop in the middle of a song to look around in alarm. The Doctor, however, smiled and tossed the newspaper away before grabbing Elena's hand and running towards the source. "That's more like it!"

It was utter chaos inside the building. People were flat out running towards the exits, making it hard for Elena to see what was going on as she was concentrating on not getting separated from the Doctor.

Finally the pair fought their way to the front in time to see what looked like a blue shadow leave a woman's body and begin flying around, no clear path in mind.

"Fantastic." She heard the Doctor say just before the woman collapsed on the floor. Someone- a man- was up on what looked like a stage trying to calm everyone down but it was in vain; by now almost everyone had already left their seats and were joining the mass trying to reach the exit.

The brunette was vaguely aware of the Time Lord joining the man on stage and saying something as she was too busy trying to form some sort of idea as to what was going on. Movement caught her eye and she saw two people- a middle aged man and a young women who was maybe a few years older than Elena herself- grab the woman who had fallen and begin to carry her away.

"Leave her alone!" She found herself calling out, wondering who these people were and what they wanted with the woman. She had a feeling it had to do with whatever the blue ghost-type thing was. "Doctor, I'll get them." She added, proceeding to follow the people knowing the woman was their best chance at finding out exactly what was going on at the moment.

"Be careful!" He yelled back before continuing interrogating the man. She didn't hear exactly what he asked as she was already running to catch up with the two strangers and the woman.

Bitter winter air assaulted her as she ran out onto the street, momentarily making her falter from the shock, but she pushed through it and continued her pursuit. Thankfully they didn't seem to be carrying the women too far away; she spotted them stop by a carriage and open the back doors.

"What are you doing?" Elena yelled, halting beside to them, causing them to start.

"Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary." The young woman said quickly, feeding the girl the first lie she could think of.

As the young woman was speaking Elena reached over and grabbed the unconscious woman's arm- and automatically noticed how cold it was. Concerned, she felt around the wrist for a pulse… and found none.

"Oh my god." She heard herself breathe. "She's dead. What did you do to her?!"

In her shock the brunette failed to notice someone sneaking up behind her until a cloth was suddenly pressed against her mouth. Acting on instinct she began struggling. However as she breathed in whatever the cloth was soaked in she found her struggles becoming weaker and weaker until they seized and her vision went black.

-DW-VD-

Meanwhile back inside the theatre the blue entity suddenly flew into a gas lamp hanging on one of the walls just below the ceiling.

"Gas! It's made of gas!" The Doctor exclaimed, seizing his questioning of the man and abruptly turning away to tell Elena about this recent development.

He made it outside in time to see some young brunette woman who definitely was _not _Elena loading what looked like his human companion into a hearse before closing the door, hopping up front, and taking off.

Spotting a nearby carriage, he automatically made his way towards it, feeling worry and a hint of anger bubble up inside him. He noticed the man he'd questioned in the theatre following him but paid the human little mind. Right now, the blue gas entity and Elena held his focus.

"You're not escaping me, sir. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?" The man demanded from behind the Time Lord.

"Yeah, mate. Not now thanks." The Doctor shot back not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice, reaching the carriage. "Oi, you! Follow that hearse." He added to the driver of the carriage as he climbed in it.

"I can't do that sir." The driver told him from up front.

"Why not?"

"I'll tell you why not." The man who'd followed him said from beside the carriage. "I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my couch."

"Well, get in, then!" The Doctor said, practically dragging the man into the carriage. "Move!"

The driver cracked the whip and the carriage took off down the street.

"Come on, your losing them." He muttered realizing the hearse was steadily getting further and further away.

"Everything in order, Mister Dickens?" The driver called from up front, making the Time Lord pause for a moment.

"No! It is not!" The man in question called back indignantly.

"What did he say?" He had to be certain the theory he was developing was correct- which was steadily turning into a plan of how to get to Elena faster if it was true.

"Let me say this. I am not without a sense of humour-"

The Doctor cut him off. "Dickens?"

"Yes."

"Charles Dickens?"

"Yes."

"_The _Charles Dickens?"

"Should I remove the gentleman, sir?" The driver inquired but the two occupants in the carriage ignored him.

The plan he'd been forming in his mind ever since he first heard 'Dickens' looked like it was going to work after all.

"Charles Dickens? You're brilliant, you are. Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. _Great Expectations_, _Oliver Twist_ and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?" He told the man. It was true- no matter what incarnation he was in; he'd always enjoyed the author's work for some reason. However that had nothing to do with his plan to get to Elena faster. If there was one thing he'd learned about humans over the course of his nine hundred some years, it was that humans loved flattery.

"_A Christmas Carol_?" Charles Dickens replied, looking at him with surprise.

"No, no, no. The one with the trains. _The Signal Man_, that's it! Terrifying. The best short story ever written." He continued.

Once again, the driver interrupted them. "You want me to get rid of him, sir?"

"Er, no. I think he can stay."

"Honestly Charles- can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan."

The man looked at him with confusion. "A what? A big what?"

"Fan. Number one fan. That's me."

"How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"

"No, it means fanatic, devoted to." The Doctor elaborated. "Come on, faster!" He added when he realized the hearse was practically out of sight.

"Who exactly is in that hearse?" Charles inquired.

"My friend. She's…young. It's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger." Every word of that was true and not a part of the plan he'd formed. He felt a flash of guilt at that; it really _was_ his fault Elena was now in danger.

"Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books? This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!" The man cried, sensing the other man really did care about this woman in the hearse.

With a "Yes sir" the driver cracked the whip a couple more times and they began gaining ground on the hearse.

-DW-VD-

The first thing Elena was aware of when she finally came to was that she lying on some hard, unfamiliar wooden surface. Sitting up- wincing at the vertigo the sudden movement caused- her brown eyes scanned the room she was in.

It was fairly spacious and lit warmly by gas lamps. She slowly swung her legs off the table-thing she was lying on—and noticed the coffins for the first time.

The brunette couldn't help but jump when one of the bodies- that she recognized with a jolt as the woman from the theatre- began moving in one of them before rising.

"This is a dream." She told herself, closing her eyes, counting to ten, and opening them again, knowing if it was a dream the woman would just be lying in the coffin. Only to see the woman was now completely out of the coffin. Her heart sank- could she go nowhere without something supernatural happening? However when the woman began shuffling towards her, instinct kicked in and Elena ran as fast as she could in the shoes and dress to the door. "Let me out!" She yelled, pounding on the door upon realizing she was locked in the room.

She kept at it, glancing back every now and then to see how much distance was between her and the zombie woman. Her ears vaguely picked up on some sort of commotion somewhere in the house and she began praying that it was somehow the Doctor, because she doubted she'd be strong enough to kick this heavy wooden door in and had no weapons that would stop the woman.

"Somebody open the door! Please!" Elena tried again, only to feel a very cold hand grasp her arm and begin pulling her further into the room. She began struggling but the woman's grip was strong despite her elderly appearance.

The door was suddenly kicked in and Elena whipped around to see to her immense relief the Doctor. The relief was trumped somewhat by the expression she saw flicker across his face briefly.

"I believe this is my dance." He said, grabbing her free arm and pulling her away from the woman to the doorway where he stood with three people- two that she recognized as the ones whom kidnapped her.

"It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence." The stranger said in denial.

"No, we're not. The dead are walking." The Doctor told him before turning to Elena. "Hi."

"Hi." She replied a small smile making it's way across her face. "Who's your friend?"

"Charles Dickens." He said, like this kind of thing happened all the time. Which, being a Time Lord, she supposed it did.

"Okay." _No point in making a big deal out of it- I might as well get used to running into long dead historical figures. _She told herself.

He turned to the woman who was staring at them with her lifeless, cold eyes. "My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?"

The woman opened her mouth to speak, and when she did it was in several voiced, making the fine hairs on Elena's neck rose and chills shoot down her spine. "Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" On the last word the same blue entity from the theatre left the woman's mouth and flew into the nearest gas lamp.

Elena was in the process of trying to decipher what the thing's speech meant and hardly noticed they had moved into what she assumed was the living room until the smell of tea hit her nostrils. She looked up to see the woman who had helped kidnap her- whom she learned was Gwyneth- pouring tea.

"It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless." The man- Sneed- said. This caught Elena's attention.

"Tommyrot." Charles Dickens said, obviously still denying what he'd seen.

"You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps." Sneed replied. "One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."

"Morbid fancy." The author told him.

"Oh, Charles, you were there." The Doctor said from his position leaning beside the mantlepiece.

"I saw nothing but an illusion." He continued.

She could tell the Doctor was starting to get annoyed by his next words. "If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up." He told him. "What about the gas?" He asked Sneed.

"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through." The Doctor muttered.

"What's the rift?" Elena asked.

"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time." He elaborated.

"So… like a Hellmouth." She said.

"A what?" He asked, looking at her with obvious confusion on his face.

"Nothing." She told him quickly, waving it away and hoping the redness she could feel on her cheeks wasn't visible to him.

"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations." Sneed said. The sound of Charles Dickens slamming the door as he exited the room followed, but he carried on anyway. "Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

Elena noticed the Doctor leave in the same direction as the author shortly after Sneed fell silent, and Elena chose to see where Gwyneth had gone.

She found the young woman busy lighting gas lamps in what she assumed was the kitchen, as there were a bunch of dirty dishes stacked next to a soapy basin of water. Wordlessly Elena went over and began washing the dishes.

"Please, miss, you shouldn't be helping. It's not right." Gwyneth told her.

She glanced up and smiled at her. "I don't mind. Besides, it looks like Sneed works you to death." The two worked in silence for a bit before Elena decided to try conversation again, coming to the conclusion that despite the fact Gwyneth had helped kidnap her she wasn't that bad. "So, did you go to school?"

"Of course I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper."

"Only once a week?"

"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second."

"Ugh, me too." She shuddered as she remembered the torture she'd faced every school year with math. Not that she was horrible at it, but because she'd much rather be in say, English or some other class.

"Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own."

Elena smiled at this, remembering the few instances her, Caroline, and Bonnie skipped school. "Some of my friends and I used to do that every once and awhile. We would end up exploring the shops in any nearby towns, mainly looking at boys." _Well, Caroline mainly. _

"Well, I don't know much about that, miss."

"Come on Gwyneth, I bet you've done the same."

"I don't think so, miss."

"You can tell me. I bet you've got you're eye on someone."

Gwyneth finally seemed to give in at that. "I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him."

"He sounds nice." She said, smiling. "Why don't you ask him out? Offer him some tea or something as a start? You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed."

"Oh, now that's not fair. He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."

For the second time in what must have been a day, she felt her heart clench in sympathy. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you, miss. But I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me. Maybe your parent's are up there waiting for you too, miss."

Elena looked sharply at Gwyneth. "Who told you they were dead?"

"I don't know. Must have been the Doctor."

It made sense, but she doubted he'd just go around telling people that without a reason. "How do you know all this?"

"Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, miss?"

"No, not where I come from."

"And you've come such a long way." The woman said.

"What makes you think that?"

"You're from America. I've seen drawings of its cities before but never like the town where you grew up. Nothing that could strike so much false sense of security, nothing so full of the creatures of nightmares. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, miss." Gwyneth continued, and Elena noticed her voice had taken on a faraway tone, like she was seeing something only she could see.

"It's alright." Elena said, wondering what she meant by 'darkness' and 'big bad wolf' but pushing those away for now.

"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it." She replied, and Elena realized with relief that her voice had returned to its normal tone.

"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?" A voice from the doorway asked, startling both of them and making them jump. Elena whipped around and saw it was the Doctor. A flash of panic shot through her- what if he heard Gwyneth's talk of Mystic Falls and connected it with Klaus? But if he did, he gave no indication.

"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head."

"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key." Once again, Elena had no idea what he was talking about.

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts." Gwyneth admitted.

"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

"What to do where, sir?" She asked with confusion, echoing Elena's train of thought.

"We're going to have a séance."

-DW-VD-

Elena had had a very bad feeling at the séance, and it turned out her feeling was right instead of just the bad memories of the time Bonnie preformed a séance which had almost killed her witch friend.

It turns out the blue entities were really these aliens called the Gelth who need Gwyneth to open some sort of bridge that would allow them to pass into the bodies of the deceased, which was apparently the only way to save their species.

"You can't let them run around inside dead people!" She exclaimed when it became clear to her the Doctor was seriously considering letting it happen.

"Why not? It's like recycling." He replied.

She felt an overwhelming urge to hit him. The only thing that stopped her from doing it was a voice in the back of her head reminding her that he was an alien. "Seriously though, you can't." She said as calmly as possible.

"Seriously though, I can." He shot back.

"It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people! We should respect them even in death." Elena pressed. She felt horrible that a race was going to die, yes, but at the cost of interrupting the respect the dead deserved? She knew which one she stood by.

"Do you carry a donor card?"

"That's different. That's-"

"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying." The Doctor said, and she could detect anger in his voice.

The sensible thing would be to let the subject drop for now, but she found she was unable to.

"They're not using her." She said firmly.

"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked softly from her position on the couch, where they had laid her after she'd passed out when the séance had finished.

"Look, what's going on… it's complicated. It could kill you, possibly." Elena told her.

"I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?" The young woman said, directing the last part at the Time Lord.

"You don't have to do anything." He said.

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me." Gwyneth assured him.

"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?" The Doctor turned to the man, who'd been silent throughout the exchange.

"That would be the morgue." He replied.

Elena stayed silent as Sneed led them to the chilly stone basement, where she was greeted with the sight of the recently deceased covered in white sheets.

"Doctor… the Gelth don't succeed. I would've heard if there were corpses walking around in 1869." She told him as they halted, trying one last time.

"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like _that_." He snapped his fingers for emphasize. "Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing." His eyes met hers, completely serious and she found herself staring back.

"Doctor the room's getting colder." Charles Dickens said, interrupting.

"Here they come." Elena said, tearing her gaze away and watching a Gelth come out of a nearby gas lamp and materialize under an archway she just realized was there.

"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him." The Gelth said, it's voice still managing to raise the fine hairs on the brunette's neck.

Taking a step towards the Gelth despite this she pleaded, "Promise you won't hurt her."

The alien either didn't hear her or ignored her. "Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?" The Doctor told it. "Okay, where's the weak point?" He continued.

"Here, beneath the arch." The entity replied.

"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth repeated, moving until she was standing under the arch and inside the Gelth. "My angels." She said, a small smile crossing her face.

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!" The Gelth said.

"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" The woman told it, her gaze taking on the same faraway look it had during the séance. The smile was still on her face.

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!" Gwyneth cried.

"It is begun. The bridge is made." The Gelth said. As it did, Gwyneth's opened and blue gas- another Gelth- came out. "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend."

At that moment, the blue appiration turned a brilliant, red flame color with very sharp teeth. "The Gelth will come through in force." It said, it's voice deeper, harder, and more sinister than before.

"You said that you were few in number." Elena turned to see it was Charles Dickens who had spoken. She noticed his face had gone very ashen.

"A few billion. And all of us need corpses."

All around them, the dead began to rise, tearing the sheets off of themselves and standing up before shuffling towards them.

Sneed took a few steps towards Gwyneth, who was motionless under the arch. "Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things along, I beg of you!" He said, both firmly and pleadingly.

"Mister Sneed, look out!" Elena shouted, noticing one of the possessed corpses heading towards the man. Too late, he turned just as the corpse's hands reached up and twisted his neck.

The all too familiar sound of a neck breaking rang out. The brunette watched as a Gelth zoomed into his mouth, and like the other corpses he stood up.

"I think it's gone a bit wrong." She heard the Doctor state beside her. She gave him a look that clearly said 'you think'. "Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" He said, louder.

"Three more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth." The demon-looking Gelth said.

The corpses began advancing on them, and Elena found herself and the Doctor being rapidly backed against a metal grate.

"Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so-" Dickens began but what he was going to say next they never heard.

As the author was speaking, the Doctor opened the metal grate and dragged Elena into the small alcove behind it before shutting the grate, using it as some sort of barrier between the Gelth and them.

"Give yourself to glory." The one Gelth was saying. "Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you! I pitied you!" The Doctor shouted at them and Elena could see the betrayal on his face clear as day. He really had trusted the Gelth.

"We don't want your pity." The Gelth said that word with a vague hint of poison. "We want this world and all it's flesh."

"Not while I'm alive." He replied.

"Then live no more." Elena was vaguely aware of Dickens running out of the room and presumably the house as fast as possible as the corpses tried to reach her and the Doctor through the bars in the grate.

"I can't die, right?" She said, looking at the Doctor. "I haven't even been born yet. Isn't it impossible for me to die?"

The look he gave her- one of sadness- told her everything. "I'm sorry." He said, confirming what she already suspected.

"But- how?"

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here." The Doctor elaborated.

"I wanted to come." She protested.

"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff." He told her, and she wasn't sure if he was being serious or if it was his attempt at humor.

"We'll go down fighting, right?" She asked, knowing she wasn't going to die and let herself be possessed by some alien thing without a fight.

"Yeah."

"Together?"

One corner of his mouth seemed to twitch at that. "Yeah."

She nodded, took a deep breath and turned to face the Gelth trying to force there way through the bars when she felt a hand grab hers. She glanced up to see it was the Doctor.

"I'm so glad I met you." He told her and she saw a genuine smile cross his face.

"Me too." She replied, returning his smile and squeezing his hand lightly. She felt almost… comforted by the fact that if she was going to die- again, permanently- it wouldn't be alone.

"Doctor! Doctor!" A voice yelled. The two turned in unison to see Charles Dickens run back into the room. "Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" He continued.

"What're you doing?" The Doctor asked him as the man proceeded to turn off the flame of the gas lamp and apparently turn up the gas.

"Turn it all on. Flood the place!" He continued as if he hadn't heard the Time Lord.

The Doctor finally seemed to catch on. "Brilliant. Gas." He said.

"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous."

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" With that, the Gelth possessed corpses shuffled towards the author, allowing the Doctor to rip a gas pip off the wall near them without worrying if the Gelth would manage to kill him in the process.

The Gelth began to leave the bodies and he opened the grate. Elena stuck close to him as the left the alcove they'd sought refuge in.

"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels." He told the young woman.

"Liars?" She echoed.

"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" He added.

Elena quickly realized the high levels of gas in the air was beginning to effect her when suddenly every breath felt like someone was stabbing her lungs with a thousand white hot knives. "Can't breathe." She managed to choke out, resisting the urge to both cough and gasp for air.

The Doctor glanced back at her and she was slightly surprised to see the amount of concern on his face. "Charles, get her out of here." He told the other occupant in the room.

She was allowing the author to led her to the stairway, hardly hearing what the Doctor and Gwyneth talked about, when she noticed the woman pulling out a box of matches from her apron. She halted and, despite the pain it caused her, yelled "You can't!"

"Elena, get out! Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!" He yelled back at her, and it took being dragged out of the room by Dickens to get her to move.

"This way!" He told her as they ran through the hallways back to the front door, with him still dragging her behind him even though she was running.

The two stood outside under the street lamps watching the house. Elena kept an eye on the front door, waiting for any sign of the Doctor and Gwyneth. Finally she saw the familiar form of the Doctor emerge from the house and run towards them- just as the house behind them exploded.

"She saved the world." Elena said as the Doctor joined them. She already knew Gwyneth hadn't made it, and by the look on the Time Lord's face he had tried to save her. She remembered the talk they'd had in the kitchens, how the young woman had told her about the crush she had on a butcher's son, and felt her heart flood with remorse. "A servant girl. No one will ever know."

-DW-VD-

The journey back to the TARDIS was a fairly solem one, but the goodbye to Charles Dickens was a bit happier- especially when she realized her and the Doctor had helped bring life back into his eyes.

"But, wait. Doesn't it change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" She asked when her and the Doctor were back inside the console room, remembering the plan for the book that he'd told them.

"In a weeks time it'll be 1870- the year he died. He'll never get to tell his story." He told her.

"He was nice." She said, before falling silent and just watching the Doctor send them back into the Vortex. She remembered what he'd mentioned back in the basement. "Wait… is there really a World War Five?"

"Yep. And a World War Three and World War Four." He said. "Why do you humans seem to enjoy killing each other?" He asked her as an afterthought.

"To be honest, I'm still trying to figure that out." She replied. "Do you know who won the wars? And who was on whose side?" She inquired, curious and hoping he wouldn't mind- she knew what the Time War had cost him and had no idea if talking about any type of war might awaken memories better left buried.

"In the third one, it was because Russia decided it wanted to expand its borders. The Untied Nations of course wouldn't stand for it…" He began, seeming to not have a problem explaining it to her, and she listened eagerly hardly noticing they just sat in the console room talking for hours, too engrossed in his story.

-DW-VD-

_Holy—this is the longest chapter I've written in my entire life. I hate to think of what the word count is. Kudos to you if you managed to read this far- I'm sorry it's so long; it just wouldn't end! Any suggestions for where they should go next? And what did you think- good, bad, horrible, etc.? And what about some fluff later on where Elena manages to convince the Doctor to watch episodes of _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer _with her? (where the Hellmouth reference came from)_

_Hopefully updates will be faster as in a few weeks school will be out and exams done with. Both this and 'Soulmates' are going to be my main focuses. Be warned, though, the chapters will end up being long so it may take longer to get them out._


End file.
